46 Large and Small Holdings 



lay upon the home market, ready to go abroad so soon as normal 

 conditions of trade should be restored. Accordingly, when the Con- 

 tinental System was abolished, foreign markets were filled to over- 

 flowing by English goods. But the purchasing power of the foreign 

 markets had been overestimated 1 . They were not in a position to 

 take up the surplus produce of England. Not only so, but they set 

 up positive hindrances to the invasion of English goods which 

 threatened to follow on the invasion of French armies, by erect- 

 ing tariff walls in the interest of the development of their own 

 industries 2 . England had therefore little to hope from them. An 

 enlightened policy would have concentrated on the development and 

 strengthening of the home market. But on the contrary a protective 

 policy was instituted which would necessarily lessen the home demand 

 for the products of the factories and workshops. 



The introduction of high duties on corn in the year 1815 artificially 

 raised the price of the article of fare most important to the mass of 

 the people. The curse entailed by the bad harvests and the limitation 

 of imports due to the war was extended to the peace period for the 

 benefit of corn-growers and landlords, and the price of wheat was 

 kept by the corn-laws 3 above the price of the international market. 

 But the more the labouring classes had to pay for their bread, the 

 less could they afford to expend on the products of industry. In bad 

 seasons the high duties caused an enormous rise in price 4 . No corre- 

 sponding rise in wages followed, either on the land or in the towns 5 . 

 The consequence must have been that in such years the demand of 

 the masses for anything except bread was enormously reduced. The 

 diminished demand was of course followed by a decrease of supply, 

 whereby masses of labourers were thrown out of work, or at least had 

 their wages reduced. Accordingly the years of bad harvests and high 

 corn-prices were always periods of terrible industrial and commercial 

 crisis, as especially in the years 1817 to 1819, 1825, 1829 to 1832, and 

 1839 to 1845. 



The misery of the labouring classes, not only in such years of acute 

 crisis, but throughout the period of the corn-laws, has been described 



1 Harriet Martineau, History of England, 1 849, Vol. I, p. 34. 



3 L. Brentano, Anfang und Erde der englischcn Komwlle, a supplement to the AUgemeine 

 Zeitung, 1892, Nr. 15, p. 4. 



3 Levy, Die Not etc. , p. 1 29. 



4 Ibid., p. 104, and passim. 



5 H. Martineau, op. cit. Vol. n, p. 407 ; Tooke, op. cit. Vol. in, p. 52. See also H. Levy, 

 Landarbciter und Kornzblle, in Nation, Nov. 2nd, 1901 ; and the Memoirs of Sir Robert 

 Peel, 1857, Vol. n, p. 338. 



